L&T Managing Editor and race judge Larry Phillips, right, gives instructions for Saturday's OzSome Race to The Golden Gloves team members Hollie Pierce. left, Lexi Pierce and Rene Nelson and the team Harrold Rebels with members Cammy and Dale Harrold.

L&T staff report

Two teams that have raced before but never at the same time faced off Saturday in a chance to qualify for the $1,000 Ozsome Race finale later thsi summer.

The Golden Gloves were racing for the second time while Harrold’s Rebels were in their third season. The Harrold’s (Dale and Cammy) have finished as high as second but never first.

The Golden Gloves (Rene Nelson, Hollie Pierce and Lexi Pierce) finished third two weeks ago and were giving the race a second shot.

The two teams gathered at Mary Frame Park and had to cross the bridge to find their first destination. Lexi ran the task for the Gold Gloves and head a lead on Cammy.

But that lead was gone by the time they arrived at the track at West Middle School for their first task.

All was quiet when the two teams suddenly burst on the scene in their vehicles at the same time.

With some impatience on the part of the contestants, they were given their task – a quiz on Liberal Hihg School track history – while their teammates walked around the track until the correct answers were found in ‘Red Reign,” a book chronicling the hisotirc state championship run of the Redskins and Lady Redskins.

“I could do the track, but finding those answers was pretty hard,” Cammy said afterward.

Both teams had difficulty navigating the book to find the answers and eventually had to be given a little guidance of where to look. After about an hour, both teams had completed the task and were on their way to Light Park for the task awaiting them there.

What would seem to be a simple task for some proved rather difficult for the two teams involved in Saturday’s leg of the Ozsome Race competition at the second stop of the day.

Harrold’s Rebels arrived first at the basketball court in the north part of Liberal’s Light Park. Dale immediately took the task envelope from the judge, and upon reading it, he took to the free throw line of one of the courts in an attempt to make the 20 shots required.

A slight wind and some rain left over from Friday night’s storm made the task a little more difficult, but both teams appeared to have trouble regardless of the conditions.

Dale and Cammy fired shot after shot at the basketball goal, with many of them either banging off the backboard or coming up airball. Slowly but surely, though, the team, while switching places and even taking underhanded shots, would eventually reach the goal of 20 for the task before moving on.

“Two more, and I’ll take it,” Dale said at one time to his wife as the two exchanged shot taking.

“Just five more hon, that’s all you need,” Cammy later said as the couple approached the 20 makes goal.

The Harrolds had plenty of time at Light Park’s stop, though, as the Golden Gloves team of Rene Nelson and her niece, Hollie Pierce, appeared to have trouble with Saturday’s first task at the West Middle School football field.

Dale and Cammy had already made 18 shots by the time Nelson and Pierce arrived at Light Park, and shortly upon the Golden Gloves’s arrival, the Harrolds would make their final two shots.

Initially, Pierce grabbed one of the two basketballs in place at the court, but discovering it was somewhat deflated, she pointed her daughter, Lexi, in the direction of the other ball.

Upon receiving the ball, Pierce, who claimed to have been a former ball player, began clanking shots off the backboard, with the occasional make going into the hoop.

“Shut up Rene,” Pierce said as her aunt began making jokes about her free throw shooting skills.

In an attempt to make more free throws, she went for a style similar to that used by shot put participants in track and field.

She even tried shooting from several other angles during the task, but she seemed to fare just as well at those spots as she did from the line.

About midway through the task, Nelson needed to leave for a minute to go to nearby Walgreens.

The water on the court played havoc with both teams as many of the shots ended with the ball getting wet and leaving team members chasing the ball and getting wet themselves.

Since the Harolds finished at the second location before the Golden Gloves, they reached the third destination first. The third location was Tobias Park, and the task was to send one team member to the Pancake Day Hall of Fame to search for the clue for the final destination.

Cammy Harrold, part of the husband and wife duo, was sent to find the clue.

About 10 minutes after the Harrolds showed up at Tobias Park, the Golden Gloves came up to complete the third task.

Hollie Pierce from the Gloves ran off to find the clue for the destination, and about a minute after she disappeared from sight, she came walking back to the park. She said, “I just got lucky!” as she approached Dale Harrold, who was still waiting for his wife to find their clue.

Shortly after the Golden Gloves took off for the final destination, Cammy came running back, and the couple rushed off to Dorothy’s House, where the last task was waiting for them.

Once they reached the Coronado Museum, both teams were sent on a search for a famous brick on the Yellow Brick Road: the brick of Judy Garland’s daughter, Liza Minnelli.

During the intense search for the brick, the Harrolds caught up to the Golden Gloves. They found the brick first, therefore finding the answer they needed to show Dorothy to win. The Harrolds quickly found Dorothy behind the museum, and were pronounced the winners.

Although the Golden Gloves lost for a second time this summer, they were not disappointed. They congratulated the Harrolds, and said they were glad the Harrolds won.

“We can try again next week, right?” Pierce asked. And trying again is exactly what they’re going to do.

Although Pierce thinks the best part of the race was “the whole experience,” her aunt, Rene Nelson, said her favorite part of Saturday’s race was the West Middle School task.

“I got two laps around the West Junior High track! I’ve never done that before!” Nelson exclaimed.

The Golden Gloves enjoyed this race better than their first.

“We didn’t have to do the stupid Frisbees,” Pierce said, which was the task they struggled with most during the first race. “I wasn’t bad at basketball. I was getting it.”

Pierce said the team’s greatest strength was her daughter. Lexi was excited about how she ran four laps around the track.

“We’re getting our exercise, I’ll tell you that,” Nelson said.

The Harrolds, who were competing in the Ozsome race for the third year in a row, eventually came in first on Saturday, completing the final challenge at Dorothy’s House, which was finding the name next to the brick of Liza Minelli, daughter of Judy Garland (the star of the famous 1939 “The Wizard of Oz” film).

Dale said he had commented the “third time’s the charm” adage to Cammy earlier that day.

“Sure enough, it was,” he said.

The Harrolds employed many strategies throughout the race, including remembering how things had been done in past races they’d competed in. They had differing opinions about which task was more difficult for them – for Dale it was the free-throw shooting at Light Park and for Cammy it was finding the clue to the final location.

“I haven’t done basketball since high school and that’s been like 45 years ago,” Dale said.

Both responded immediately when asked if they would participate again.

“You have to ask when this is our third year?” Cammy joked. “We love doing this and missed it so much when Earl didn’t have it last year. We’re very competitive.”

Races continue Saturday. Anyone inrterested in entering a team can call 626-0840 or email
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The High Plains Daily Leader and Southwest Daily Times are published Sunday through Friday and reaches homes throughout the Liberal, Kansas retail trade zone. The Leader & Times is the official newspaper of Seward County, USD No. 480, USD No. 483 and the cities of Liberal and Kismet. The Leader & Times is a member of the Liberal Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas Press Association and the Associated Press.

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